Tuesday marks 6 months since Sikh temple shooting

Mayor says schools working to teach students about other cultures

It's been six months since a white supremacist opened fire at Oak Creek's Sikh temple, killing six people and injuring four others.

The founder and leader of the temple, Satwant Singh, was killed, along with Ranjit Singh, Sita Singh, Suveg Singh Khattra, Prakash Singh and Paramjit Kaur.

Pardeep Kaleka, whose father was killed in the temple attack, said in the months since the shooting, he's become more deeply involved in the community.

Remembering the tragedy, he said, serves an important purpose.

"I hope that everybody understands that just because we revisit something doesn't mean that we want to relive it. But we owe it to those people that we've lost to them as inspiration as far as being a better society," Kaleka said.

In the temple, pictures of the victims still hang, and a bullet hole is there too, as a poignant reminder of what happened.

It was quiet there Tuesday, with several worshippers going in to pray.

Oak Creek Mayor Steve Scaffidi said in the last six months, the city's schools have worked harder to teach students about other cultures.

"I know that the school districts are now incorporating a lot of that education into their awareness days, their heritage days, their diversity days, so that's already happening. And I just had a conversation with the schools superintendent yesterday about that. So that's ongoing," Scaffidi said.

The mayor also said efforts to protect places of worship have been ongoing.

Inside the temple, the phone number for Oak Creek Police is posted in several locations.

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